S 523 

|.P4 
Copy 1 



INAIKIUEAL ADDRESS 



DKI.IVEllEI' AT 



FARMERS' COLLEGE, 



COMMENCEMENT DAY, 



'-"i 



JUNE 7 th, 18 54, 



/ 



ISAAC J. ALLEN, A. M., 

rrendenl atul Professor of Mental and Moral Science, and of (he 
TiisHtvles of Civil Tmk, 



PUBLISIIKD BY THE BOARD OP TRUSTEES. 



5" CINCINNATI: 

PRINTED AT THE BEN FRANKLIN BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 
1854. 



^. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



SELIV£S£D AT 



FARMERS' COLLEGE, 



COMMENCEMENT 33 AY, 



JUNE 7tli, I854j 



/ 
ISAAC J. ALLEN, A. M., 

PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF MENTAL AND MORAL SCIENCE, AND OF 
THE INSTITUTES OF CIVIL LAW. 







riiBLISHED BY THE BOAED OF TRUSTEES. 



'> CINCINNATI: 

M!S rRAXk'LlN MiMMOTH STEAM PRINTING KSTABLISHMEF!; 

1854, 



CORRESPONDENCE 



Docfrrr Al'en, President Board of Instructors Farmers' College. 

Sir: The Board of Directors nf Farmers' Collrge, at their last meeting, instructed 
the undersigned to request of you, for publication, the manuscript of your excellent 
Inaugural Address, delivereH on Wi dtiesday la>t in the College Chapel. 

I indulge a hope that it will suit your convenience to comply, at an early day, with 
this request. Respectfully, yours, 

JOHN W. CALDWELL, 

Secretary Board Directors, 
June 12, 1854. a79 Main St.. Cincinnati. 



Farmers' College, College Hill, ) 
June 14, 1854. \ 
DearSib: Your favor of the 12th inst, communicating the resolution of the 
Trustees inviting the publication of my Inaugural Address, is before me, and here- 
with I place at your disposal a copy of the Audress, pursuant to the flattering request 
contained in your note. 

Respectfully, yours, &c., 

ISAAC J. ALLEN. 
Col. J. W. Caldwell, Sec'y, &c., 
Cincinnati, 0. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



It is a maxim from the political wisdom of Edmund 
Burke, that " Educatit)n is the cheap defense of Na- 
tions." Lending confirmation to this, James Madison 
said, " A well instructed people alone can be a per- 
manently free people:" and John Adams declared, that 
"A republican government without knowledge and 
virtue, is a body without a soul." These sentiments, 
proclaimed as important doctrines — which, when pro- 
claimed, the world was not altogether willing to sanction 
and adopt — have now become popular aphorisms, to be 
neither gainsayed nor denied. Accordingly, in matters 
of education, it may be noted that the great effort, and 
the peculiar achievement, of the age, are, not so much 
to magnify the endowments and to make honorable 
the attainments of the aristocratic few, not for the pro- 
duction of some " Admirable Crichton" — some '^'^fault- 
less monster that the world ne'er saw" — shining with 
the startling corruscations of an intellectual meteor — 
as to diffuse education among the common millions of 
mankind, as freely as falls the golden sunshine upon 
the broad bosom of earth. In this particular the age 
is marvelously peculiar. But, this marvelous peculiar- 
ity, which so strikingly marks its features in contradis- 
tinction to those of every other in all the foregone 
history of Time, is by no means attributable to the 
sudden upheaval of any especial concurring causes ori- 



6 

ginating in the present age itself: But, such charac- 
teristics are the gratifying results flowing from cau- 
ses laying far back in the history of human civiliza- 
tion, and which seem to be now reaching their points 
of culmination. In the primitive periods, men sought 
to secure strength to the masses by the simple aggre- 
gation of numbers. Then, of course, only the chief- 
tain, or the monarch, could be conspicuous to the 
world. Humanity, then swaye4 by the commands of 
one, or by the will of a few, was necessarily unsettled 
in purpose, and Unfixed in location : that may be pro- 
perly designated as the hoy-era of history. But, hu- 
manity has since become more definitely localized; 
hence, more highly civilized; and man is, consequently, 
becoming more distinctly individualized. Each tribe, 
and every nation, has, in its aggregate features, devel- 
0]3ed its characteristic type ; and now, Man, the Indi- 
vidual, is exhibiting powers and developing energies, 
which, hitherto, have been considered as belonging 
alone to aggregate numbers. History is no longer — 
what history has ever been — the mere chronicler of 
the levy and march of armies, the guide book to the 
predatory movements of devastating hordes : It has 
received into its composition a new element of momen- 
tous import — that element is Public Opinion ! And 
this, instead of the aggregate of numbers — with their 
crushing physical force to order and direct — is the ag- 
gregate of individual thought and will, wdth their irre- 
sistible moral power to guide and to govern. 

And the supervening of this new historic element is 
w^hat gives rise to the imperative necessity, as well as 
to the public demand, for general education. When 
the great powers of humanity had their manifestation 



through the instrumentality of aggregate numbers, the 
necessity of inexorable discipline was most obvious, in 
order to avoid the worst forms of tyranny — anarchy : 
And, what discipline was to them, education must be 
to us. For, despotic as were their systems, and pow- 
erful as were their aggregate numbers, still this aggre- 
gation of individual thought and will, which we de- 
nominate '' Public Opinion," is the most absolute of all 
earthly powers ! And, thus absolute would we ha^^e 
it ever — But, ever absolutely right ! To accomplish this, 
the enlightenment of the public mind, as the means 
for the formation of correct public opinion, is, obviously, 
a prime necessity; for, without this enlightenment by 
means of public education, public opinion becomes, of 
all despotisms, the most intolerant and oppressive. It 
becomes, indeed, a very Titan — but, a Titan armed for 
evil, while blind ta good ; and, like the goaded and 
sightless Giant of Israel, it will not hesitate, thus gro- 
ping in phrenzied darkness, to grasp the pillars in the 
temple of human freedom, rend them from their base, 
and bury itself and all the cherished hopes of earth 
beneath the ghastly ruins. In the present peculiar 
phase of humanity, then, education is, emphatically, 
the clieaji and the chief defense of nations. Conscious 
of this, the public mind turns to the various institu- 
tions of learning — the school and the college — which 
public liberality and private munificence have estab- 
lished, and ask for opportunities and facilities for edu- 
cation commensurate with the great and growing de- 
mand. Responsive to this, numerous institutions of 
drstinguished merit have been founded amongst us, 
and are sustained with a flattering measure of patron- 
age, and encouraged by a high degree of public approval. 



8 

Among those Institutions, Farmers' College holds a 
prominent position. Aiming at no distinction which 
it does not merit, its purpose is to merit a distinction 
second to none on this wide continent. Its career ex- 
hibits none of the characteristics of the ephemeron ; 
]3ut, on the contrary, it has progressed with a steady, 
healthy and permanent growth. In its origin it re- 
ceived no spasmodic impulse from feverish sectarian- 
ism ; in its progress it has suffered no gaseous inflation 
from interested favoritism ; in its support and govern- 
ment it has never been tortured into a precocious debi- 
lity by the pedantic interference of speculative dream- 
ers, nor its utility diminished by an unquestioning sub- 
serviency to the egotistical dicta of antiquity. All has 
been tested by the experience of years, and made to 
approximate "continually to the useful, the substantial, 
the practical in modern education. Its germ was in 
the Academic Institute here established as early as in 
1833, under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, 
President Gary. Through the same instrumentality 
" Gary's Acadeni}^," in 184G, had grown into '• Far- 
mers' Gollege," which is now fast budding into a Uni- 
versity. With an ample legislative charter ; free from 
debt ; its financial condition sound and prosperous ; its 
property in ])uildings, fixtures, investments and endow- 
ments worth $135,000; its buildings and grounds beau- 
tiful, ample and commodious ; its halls filled with stu- 
dents ; its Professors faithful and capable ; its philoso- 
phical and other demonstrative apparatus extensive 
and efficient ; its Trustees and Faculty united and har- 
monious ; its location healthful and beautiful, even to 
the measure of a proverb ; its social atmosphere moral 
and refined ; and the Queen Gity of the kingly ^' West" 



within our vicinage — all combine to attain the highest 
point of success to which even our hopes may aspire, 
and to render the institution, at once, a most beautiful 
home and profitable school for tlie student desirous of 
prosecuting study in any department of education, 
practical or speculative — in the languages, ancient or 
modern; and in the sciences, physical or philosophical. 
Our system of instruction and the curriculum of stu- 
dies are, in some particulars, different from those usu- 
ally pursued in other Institutions. This difference has 
not been adopted, however, from any desire to obtain 
notoriety by an eccentric divergence from the routine 
of Collegiate procedure handed down from olden time ; 
but, from a certain and positive conviction that the 
wants of the public, and the demands of the age, re- 
quire such modification in the arrangement of studies, 
such adoption and incorporation of the practical scien- 
ces appertaining to the useful arts and all the indus- 
trial pursuits, into the course of university education, 
as may prepare young men to enter upon and prose- 
cute those pursuits, not only with an understanding of 
the philosophic and scientific laws on which they rest, 
but also with a ready knowledge of the practical duties 
which those pursuits require. Let us not be misun- 
derstood : We neither abbreviate nor diminish the 
usual college course ; we rath^' extend and amplify. 
We do not, by any means, repudiate the study of the 
ancient classics ; on the contrary, we recommend them 
strenuously. But, we do not make them a sine qua 
non to the honors of the Institution, when the full 
equivalent of intellectual development and mental cul- 
tivation are attained. Modern languages we equally 
recommend; and have, accordingly, provided the ap- 



10 

propriate Professorship, now most ably filled. To the 
student looking forward to mercantile life we afford 
ample instruction in book-keeping, to which will, hence- 
forth, be added a full course in Commercial Law. To 
the young man whose attention is directed to the im- 
portant profession of civil engineering we afford the 
appropriate course in mathematics, pure and mixed, 
with drawing, physical science, &c., accompanied with 
practical field lessons. Does the student propose to 
make Agriculture his pursuit ? Here he is instructed 
in the attainments for the Educated Farmer, and is 
taught, especially, those sciences directly bearing upon 
that profession, which, in fact, when thoroughly prose- 
cuted, embraces and involves almost " the whole circle 
of the sciences." And so with other pursuits and their 
appropriate studies — we invite the pupils to all; we 
exclude them from none. 

Likewise, in view of the practical utility — nay, even 
the growing necessity — that the " business men" of our 
country — And America furnishes no other class, save 
one ; and that other one is the getius, " Loafer :" In view, 
I say, of the necessit}^ that our business men should have 
a well defined knowledge of the principles of the consti- 
tution and the rudiments of law, the Trustees of the In- 
stitution, with a liberality most praiseworthy have estab- 
lished a department for instruction in the institutes of 
our civil jurisprudence. This is done in order that young 
men, whatever may be their pursuits, may be instruct- 
ed in the principles of the constitution and laws, under 
whose administration they live, and to v/liose require- 
ments their business must conform, as well as to fit 
them for a wider and higher sphere of usefulness should 
the public voice call them to stations of honor either 



11 

in a magistral, executive or legislative capacity. That 
department has, among other topics, been committed 
to my hands ; and, henceforward, familiar, but full, in- 
struction will be given in the law of contracts, of bail- 
ments, of the domestic relations, of insurance, of part- 
nership, of the administration of estates, of bills of ex- 
change and promissory notes, guaranty, surety, &c. 
And, in this, while it may not be my aim to make law- 
yers of our students — though it would aid, materially, 
those who might thereafter make the Law their pro- 
fession — my main purpose would be to impart to them 
knowledge of the law at least sufficient to enable them 
to keep themselves and their neighbors clear of litiga- 
tion ; or, if compelled to resort to legal enginery for the 
protection of person, property or reputation, that they 
may be prepared to proceed understandingly ; and, 
above all, to know when their legal business has been 
faithfully and skillfully conducted. And for all this, 
it must be that my practising Brethren of the Bar will 
surely " rise up and call me blessed !" 

Besides all these, there remains another important 
and characteristic feature of the Institution every way 
worthy of particular remark : I allude to its separate 
Department of scientific and practical Agriculture, con- 
nected with an experimental farm, at the head of 
which stands President Gary ; and to which he is bring- 
ing the advantages of his invincible energy, of his rare 
attainments as an Agriculturist, and of his ripe ^-ccom- 
plishments as a scholar. And it affords me the high- 
est gratification to announce that this Department is, 
everywhere, receiving the most hearty plaudits of pub- 
lic approval. And I do not hesitate to submit the as- 
surance that before the recurrence of this day's first 



12 

anniversary, the Farm Department of the Institution 
will be fully organized, whereby the lessons of the Lec- 
ture Room and the Laboratory shall be explained by 
practice, and the mooted doctrines of Agriculture be 
tested by experiment.* And, if this assurance be re- 
alized, then here, on College Hill, will be founded 
and organized the first College of Scientific and Practi- 
cal Agriculture ever established on the American con- 
tinent ! Such an achievement is, indeed, well worthy 
of the loftiest ambition of the loftiest mind. To found 
and to endow such an institution — the first of the kind 
in all the Western Hemisphere — in view of its multi- 
plied blessings, forever-enduring and forever-increas- 
ing, would form the loveliest leaf in the chaplet of 
Fame that Munificence ever could wreathe around the 
brow of Opulence. As we have noted, already has 
" Cary's xVcademy" become " College Hill ;" and when 
our " ExPERLMENTAL Farm DEPARTMENT'' is achieved, 
then " College Hill" becomes " University Heights !" 
And, achieved it will he. For, though Government, 
while lavish of appropriations to Commerce and the 
Arts, is both deaf to the demands and blind to the in- 
terests of Agriculture; yet the wealthy citizens and 
liberal-minded farmers around us in Ohio, Indiana and 
Kentucky are joining hands, and saying, " It shall he 
done — let government sleep on." And, as to this matter, 
their affirmative fiat, is fate. Let them but speak and 
" 'tis done !" Let them command, and it shall ^'^ stand 
fast.'' 

*Wilhin a few months past two separate Professorshipa in this Department have 
been endowed, by the munificent donations of two wealthy gentlemen, in the sums 
of $10,000 ench ; which, united with other large and liberal donations received chieHy 
from the Farmers in this and the adioining counties, make an amount of about $30,- 
000, secured within six months past, for the pmchase of the farm, and the organiza- 
tion of the appropriate Professorships in this Department. 



13 

Heretofore our Colleges seem to have been fonnded 
and endowed for the paramount purpose of educating 
young gentlemen for what was termed the " learned 
professions ;" thereby signif^dng, Law, Medicine, and 
Divinity. Occasionally would be found a merchant 
who had strayed from the College to the Counting 
Room ; '^but, most seldom, indeed, was it that the stu- 
dent of a College ever found his pursuits in the field 
of the Husbandman, or in the factory of the Artizan. 
The Farmer and Mechanic could, then, attain to but 
little^ knowledge of the sciences appertaining, even^ to 
their own^^pursuits ; and that little reached them only 
by a species of irregular and spasmodic percolation from 
what were deemed, the upper strata of those " learned 
professions ;" and even its quality seriously and sadly 
deteriorated by reason of the incongruous characteris- 
tics of the filter through which it had passed ! But 
this state of things no longer obtains ; and should have 
been abrogated long ago. The sturdy arm of Labor 
and the cunning hand of skill are asserting their ina- 
lienable rights to the privileges of a scientific education. 
They are unwilling to receive the lessons of science at 
second hand, as the mere dicta of others — they are re- 
solved to interrogate Nature for themselves. To all 
such, whether rich or poor, whether humble or exalted, 
we, emphatically, say — Come 1 

From the ranks of the humblest have come many — 
yea, indeed, most — of the brightest ornaments of intel- 
lectual humanity. And here, in this arena, while I 
have the honor to occupy this position, the child of the 
pauper shall be allowed to contend, equally, for the 
palm of intellectual superiority, with the sons of the 
wealthy and the distinguished. • For in matters of edu- 



14 

cation, as well as in government, we concede no patent 
of nobility to any rank, granting the exclusive privi- 
lege of being recognized as the gifted and the great. 
We recognize as such, none but those who bear the seal 
of the Divine credentials ; on whose intellect is graven 
the ineffaceable patent of Jehovah, entitling them to 
rule as monarchs in the broad realms of mind. And 
genius, whatever be its features — whether it rules in 
Mechanism, in Commerce, in Poetry, in Agriculture, 
in Science, in Philosophy, or the Arts — is equally a 
child of the Divine : no matter what may be its exter- 
nals, no matter what may have been its antecedents^ 
its birth-place or parentage; it is still the only real en- 
nobling enslgnia to which we yield a faithful and vo- 
luntary reverence. The Illiad of a blind beggar, called 
Homer ! is as grand and melodious as though penned 
by a Prince clad in the imperial purple ; the discovery 
of the New World by a poor carpet-weaver, named 
Christopher Columbus ! was an achievement as illus- 
trious as though accomplished by the royal Ferdinand 
himself; the oratory of a Grecian black-smith, sir- 
named Demosthenes ! was as terribly impressive as 
though, instead of his hammer, he had wielded the 
sceptre of the Macedonian. The illustrious Howard, 
whom dangers could not turn nor death terrify from 
works of humanity, whose philanthropy was as wide 
as the world, and whose benevolence both hemispheres 
delight to remember, this " nobleman of Nature" was a 
grocer's apprentice. The renowned Whitfield was the 
son of an inn-keeper : Hogarth, of a world-wide fame, 
was an engraver of pewter-plates : Dr. Mountain, 
Bishop of Durham, was the son of a beggar : Virgil was 
the son of a potter ; and PIorace the child of a shop- 



15 

keeper. Shakspeare, the wise, the witty, the " im- 
mortal" was the poor child of an humble wool-trader : 
the great Ben. Johnson worked with his own hands 
as a brick-layer : Gray, whose " Elegy in a country 
church-yard" would have immortalized his name had 
he written nothing else, was the son of a scrivener, and 
so. too, was Milton : Henry Kirk White, the melan- 
choly poet of midnight and of tears, whom Byron's 
name was honored in eulogizing, w^as the son of a 
butcher. Bloomfield and Gifford wer^ both shoema- 
kers ; Burns and Ritteniiouse were both ploughmen ; 
Franklin was a printer, and Washington a farmer. 
Sir Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning 
jenny, which, it is said, was the means of carrying Eng- 
land triumphantly through the wars of the French re- 
volution, was a barber : Ferguson, the great Astrono- 
mer of Scotland, was a shepherd-boy : the great Artist, 
Claude, whose paintings are the admiration of the 
world, and the pride of kings, was a pastry-cook : Sir 
Humphrey Davy, President of the Royal Society of 
London, the most distinguished savan of Europe, was 
the son of a carver of wooden images. Thus, ever from 
the low horizon of earth have risen those " bright par- 
ticular stars" that deck the firmament of mind, and 
shed their glowing glories over all the human race ! 

Such examples afford us the ample assurance that 
both Literature and Science refuse to do homage to 
either Lucifer or Mammom: Hence, that the college is 
to be considered as the school exclusively for pupils 
of wealth and commanding social distinction, is an 
obsolete idea. For, independent of the rule of right in 
the premises, sound political economy repudiates such 
an appropriation of public institutions to purposes so 



16 

foreii^n from their capacity of doing good, and to pan- 
der to prejudices so mischievous and absurd. For, cer- 
tainly, a moment's reflection will suggest to any intel- 
ligent mind, the significant inquiry — " Why not adapt 
the College to the educational demands of the industri- 
al pursuits, as well as to the requirements of the profes- 
sions ?" Agriculture is, emphatically and confessedly, 
the interest paramount of this whole continent ? And, 
I speak advisedly in saying, that its proper and suc- 
cessful prosecution involves a measure of general scien- 
tific knowledge even more extended and minute than 
is employed in either of the " learned professions." — 
With the latter there is demanded more of abstract 
and sj^eculative philosophy — more of what the older 
universities denominate the " humanities" — then, let 
the College retain and instruct in these ; but, the for- 
mer, i. e. Art and Agriculture require more of the prac- 
tical and physical — more of what we call the " scien- 
ces" — by all means, then, let them, too, be supi^litd 
with these from the college halls and laboratories, test- 
ed by the experiments of the crucible and by the ex- 
periments of the 'Farm, But, it may be objected, that 
this course involves the necessity of the student him- 
self selecting such studies as he pleases for his own 
particular course ; and so, in fact, it does ; nor is this 
deemed at all objectionable in principle, nor is it found 
at all impracticable in execution. Such is the system 
pursued in the German Universities, and no schools in 
the world furnish more enthusiastic nor more thorough 
students in the prosecution of their chosen and favorite 
branches. In his report to the Trustees of Brown Uni- 
versity on the subject of Collegiate Reform, made in 
1850, President Wayland suggests and recommends, in 



17 

this particular, a similar course of procedure ; and the 
reason assigned seems conclusive of its efficiency — " be- 
cause, in every step of his duty the student would he at- 
tended hy interest ; and the alliance of both interest and 
duty is proverbially efficient." Nor is this, by any means, 
merely a fanciful change — it is improvement, it is prac- 
tical progress : It is an amplification of the educational 
capacity of collegiate instrumentality, in proportions 
corresponding to the amplified requirements of indus- 
trial pursuits. To do less, would be to fall behind — to 
remain stationary, is equivalent to retrogradation ; and 
thus to linger and stumble before the rushing wheels of 
this progressive age, and this progressive people, is tan- 
tamount to annihilation beneath their ponderous power 
and rapid revolutions. 

So far as the Agricultural interest of the country is 
concerned, this advancing movement in our systems of 
University education is, now, imperatively demanded. 
We have reached the point where any postponement 
of such advancing movement is not only weak, but, 
also, wiched. Earth, the Great Thesaurium of Nature, 
whence are derived all the sources of our wealth, as 
well as all the supplies for our wants, is becoming itself 
exhausted by reason of excessive depletion. This great 
** Fiscal Agent" of humanity, under the protracted pres- 
sure of a continued " run" upon her resources, is be- 
ginning to protest the drafts of Agriculture, and is cur- 
tailing her discounts of the " offerings" of husbandry — 
not because they are themselves insolvent, but because 
their account of " deposits" is already enormously over- 
drawn, and the footing of the balance-sheet is fearfully 
in favor of the " Parent Institution !" Her facilities 
for granting relief are consequently crippled by this 
2 



18 

mole-eyed policy of her own stockholders and directors ; 
her dividends are proportion ably meagre, and eventual 
bankruptcy seems impending. As vouchers for this 
statement, I invite your attention to a brief synopsis of 
facts and figures -the " report" issued by the " Fiscal 
Agent" itself It is known that two of our great sta- 
ples, both of consumption and exportation, wheat and 
tobacco, are among the most exhausting crops found in 
nature. The most vigorous soils are required for their 
profitable production ; and, when once the land is ex- 
hausted by their growth, it exhibits a sterility as dis- 
heartening as it is unprofitable. In the early days of 
New England the fertility of her virgin soil, and its 
bountiful production of wheat caused even astonish- 
ment, and yielded returns to the hand of husbandry of 
such exuberance as to surpass even the dreams of the 
farmers themselves. They, most unwisely, believing 
this fertility " inexhaustible," were utterly heedless of 
even the ordinary expedients of considerate husbandry, 
for perpetuating the resources of the soil ; and the re- 
sult is, that the soil of the same New England is now 
absolutely incapable of producing wheat as a remune- 
rative crop ; and the entire population is supplied with 
breadstuff from the fields of the West. In 1850 the 
State of Connecticut produced but 40,000 bushels of 
wheat ; Massachusetts but 29,000 bushels, and the 
whole State of Rhode Island, once famous for the fer- 
tility of her " Providence Plantations," raised only 39 
bushels ! 

The whole product of wheat in the six New England 
States, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, in 1850, was about 
one million of bushels ; while the single State of Ohio 



19 

yielded nearly sixteen millions of bushels. In Dutchess 
county, one of the most fertile regions of N. Y., where 
they formerly reaped from 30 to 40 bushels per acre, 
they are now gathering but from 5 to 7 ! And, in re- 
ference to her tobacco, Virginia has pursued the same 
suicidal system of agriculture. They went carelessly 
over their soil, extracting the riches of its virgin fer- 
tility hj a system of cropping which would be incredi- 
ble did we not, now, witness the same on the fertile 
plains of the West, and leaving behind them its ex- 
hausted remains as mute but monitory witnesses of 
their heedless improvidence ! Hence is manifest the 
imperative demands of the public interest — the nation- 
al welfare — requiring agricultural science to interpose 
in order to prevent this egregious waste of raw mate- 
rial, and to save Agriculture ^^ from its friends ^ 

From the Report on Agriculture issued by the U. S. 
Patent Office, 1849-50, Ave learn that in the State of 
New York there are twelve millions acres of improved 
land. Of this, one million are so cultivated as to yield 
abundant harvests, and yet to become richer from year 
to year; and are in the hands of 40,000 owners, Avho, 
by study, reading, and experiment, make tnemselves 
conversant with agricultural science. Three millions 
of acres, (continues the Report) are so managed as to 
barely hold their own in point of fertility ; and these 
three millions are in the hands of persons who are 
anxious, but, lacking early education, are unable, to 
pursue agriculture scientifically, only as they can gath- 
er from observation, and by seeing how others, more 
intelligent than themselves, are improving their stock 
and estates. While the remaining eight millions of 
acres are in the hands of three liundred thousand per- 



20 

sons, who still persist in the semi-barbarous practice of 
extracting from the virgin soil all it will yield, so long 
as its yield will pay expenses ; and then leave it in an 
impoverished and unprofitable condition. 

Certainly, to call such a course of procedure Agri- 
culture, is an abuse of language and a perversion of 
truth: it is waste, and not "culture." And the esti- 
mate on this subject, officially reported to the Patent 
Office, declares that "one tliousmid millions of dollars 
would not more than restore to their original fertility the 
one hundred millions acres of lands in the United /States 
which have been already subjected to this exhausting and 
depleting process y These facts are astounding ! Sound 
principles of economy, private and political, as well as 
the undisputed and indisputable doctrines of moral 
right should be invoked to prohibit this profligate prod- 
igality of our resources. Remember : Posterity is com- 
ing after us — and already its myriad-toned voice is 
heard murmuring to our ear, in the distant echo, con- 
juring us, by all that is sacred on earth and holy in 
heaven, to pass onward to them the blessings of those 
free institutions which our fathers have transmitted to 
us : and such an adjuration coming from such a source, 
stirs the deepest determinations of the human soul, 
resolving, that, as we have been thus favored, so shall 
those be who are to come after us! Shall we then 
hand down to them the mere skeleton of our country, 
bereft of its beauty and deprived of its abundance? 
Can we be content to transmit to them simply an 
"Ideal Republic," whose substantial comforts our prod- 
igality has wasted, and whose elements of wealth our 
improvidence has squandered ? Nay ! Let it be equal- 
ly remembered, that for them and their appropriate 



21 

uses, these broad fields, these fertile valleys, those un- 
dulating plains, spread over all this wide and widening 
Republic, are, also, held in trust. 

We may not be permitted, then, to impoverish those 
fields, to make desolate those valleys and plains — in a 
word — not permitted to commit waste while in the use 
of our life-estate, against the proper claim of those to 
whom the reversion belongs, by this prodigal and im- 
provident use of the earth, "TAe earth is the Lord's, 
and the fullness thereof." Man is but a tenant for life ; 
and when his life-lease expires, he is morally bound, 
by contract implied, to surrender the possession of the 
premises he occupied, in as good a condition as he found 
them. Hence, for man to commit waste by ignorant 
and improvident husbandry, is to perpetrate high- 
handed wickedness against the Landlord, and to inflict 
a heinous wrong upon His succeeding tenantry. And, 
Posterity, as infant parties, now, by their 'next 
friends/ do, accordingly present their Petition in the 
Chancery of Science, praying for a decree of perpetual 
injunction against their ancestry, to prevent the com- 
mission of waste to their reversionary interest; and, 
viewed in every possible relation of right and good 
conscience, we must "find that the equity of the case 
is with the Petitioners." That this improvidence of the 
present, and this catastrophe to the future may be 
avoided, is the aim of Agricultural Science. And we 
feel assured that, in every conceivable light — as to its 
relations to public and private economy; to moral right 
and contingent wrong; to present duty and future 
prosperity — its importance not only justifies, but even 
demands the prominence we give it in our curriculum 
of College studies. 



22 

I am, nevertheless, aware that some distinguished 
scholars and eminent teachers demur to this view 
touching the amplification of Collegiate studies — 
maintaining that the more appropriate procedure, is 
for the College to ^" brace up the old scholastic course." 
Among such is Professor Lewis, of Union College, New 
York, who has gained some prominence in this position 
by reason of his essay published on the subject. In 
his essay Professor Lewis rejects the opinion that a 
man understands his trade or profession better for be- 
ing versed in the principles of science connected with 
his pursuit, and, in a phrase somewhat exultant, de- 
mands " Why the practical man should study out 
for himself what the thoroughly scientific man can 
study out to so much hetter advantage?'''' And he fur- 
ther declares, that " the practical application of science 
must always be the empirical use of principles evolved 
in the closet and the laboratory." But, in his tri- 
umphant interrogatory, the learned Professor has ut- 
terly misconceived the aim to be attained by this Col- 
legiate reform. — He says, let the "thoroughly scientific 
man study out," &c. We concur : but our aim is to 
make the '•^practical man thoroughly scientific,'' in order 
that he may study out for himself what Professor L. 
would have another study out for him. His position 
involves, and indeed he claims the necessity of making 
distinctions and classes. It would make some the gen- 
erators of knowledge, others mere passive receivers, 
and others, again, mere nominal appliers." 

And his only apologetic defense of this is, " the ty- 
rant's plea — necessity :" for he declares " we can not 
help it." Now, this is tantamount to the assertion that 
society needs a distinct class of men to do its thinking ! 



23 

A blunder so huge as to be almost sublime ; but, fall- 
ing one step short of that, becomes hugely rediculous. 
This is the very quintessence of " Old Fogyism " — 
*' Hunkerism " in its most frozen, frigid, unmitiga- 
ted form. Nor do I deem our learned Professor any 
more fortunate in his second position — that " the 
practical applications of science must always be the 
empirical use of the principles evolved in the closet and 
the laboratory." For, if I opine correctly, facts of a 
most important nature array themselves against this 
doctrine of Professor Lewis ; and it would not be diffi- 
cult to show that the practical applications of scientific 
laws have been made before they became the subjects 
of investigation in the closet, or of experiments in the 
laboratory. Practical science is, indeed, but the com- 
mon-place book of Nature : Hor closet is never closed 
— Her laboratory is every where and forever open. A 
floatins: lo"f suo;2;ested the boat, and the motion of a 
fish's tail supplied the rudder. Accident drew the first 
portrait, by throwing a profile upon the wall. A piece 
of flint, falling into a fire, mixed with some sand, they 
were fused, and the world had glass. The simple boil- 
ing of water gave birth to the steam-engine, which, in the 
lano;ua2;e of Kossuth, "makes distance obsolete." The 
flying of a child's kite, in a storm, suggested the elec- 
tric telegraph — that marvelous invention which makes 
both time and distance obsolete, which gives to the 
rock-ribbed globe a nervous system, and majvcs a whis- 
pering gallery of the world ! All these facts, first ap- 
plied outside of the laboratory, put science on the qui 
vive ; and the principles evolved have not been, by the 
intelligent, practical man, in any wise emjyiricall?/ ap- 
plied and employed. Our aim is to put science into 



24 

the hand of the practical man, in order that he may 
move understandingly through the laboratory of na- 
ture, and not " empirically," like the hooded messenger 
of the savan of the closet, sent simply to do his er- 
rand-bidding. In none of these particulars, therefore, 
can we subscribe to the opinions of Professor Lewis. 

I may be permitted to suggest that the term " sci- 
ence " is so frequently employed in our common speech 
that, like all common phrases used in colloquial par- 
lance, it is liable to lose somewhat of its precision of 
meaning before the mind ; hence, it may not be amiss 
to determine its legitimate signification. And, I con- 
ceive the true definition of Science to be — knoivledgej 
reduced to order. 

The mere attainment of heterogeneous knowledge, 
however vast and accurate, is no more to be regarded as 
* Science ' than is the unwashed gold to be regarded as 
coin. The condensing crucible, the stamp and dye of 
the mint must first reduce the golden dust to form and 
order, before its denomination can be given and its 
standard value fixed. The miscellaneous collection of 
amorphous facts, however numerous and well-deter- 
mined, do not constitute a science, any more than do the 
scattered blocks of unhewn marble constitute a temple. 
The sharp attrition of refined experiment must first 
give shape and polish to those unhewn blocks ; the line 
and level of truth must fix their exact relative posi- 
tion ; the plastic hand of order must adj ust the com- 
bined proportions, before the admiring architect can 
say "'tis finished." So, in relation to attainments in 
science, it may well be said, that 

" Those rules of old, discovtred, not devised, 
Are nature still, but nature methodized.'''' 



25 

It is knowledge reduced to order — it is Sdence. 
And, now, what is Art ? Art is science reduced to i^ac- 
tice: and this procedure involves the employment of 
the most substantial philosophy. Again : What is phi- 
losophy? I know no better verbal equivalent than 
this — philosophy is sound common sense, icell informed 
and tliorouglilij disciplined. A principle of science, 
once determined, becomes, when applied, a rule of Art. 
Art, therefore, implies and presupposes scientific know- 
ledge as its predicate. Then, while Science is the 
source of Art, Art is the right hand of Science. Sci- 
ence has Art for its exponent and interpreter ; Art has 
Science for its tutor and its guide ; but this philosophy, 
above mentioned, must be the torch -bearer along the 
path. And this is true of every department of Art, 
whether agricultural or mechanical ; and it is through 
the instrumentality of this combination that Art has 
invested man with the dominion over matter : 

" She led him through the trackless wild, 
Where noomide sunbeams never blazed; 
The thistle shrunk, the harvest smiled, 
And Nature gladdened as she guzed. 
Earth's thousand tribes of living things, 
At Art's command to him are eiven ; 
The village grows, the city springs. 
And point their sjnies of faith to Heaven. 
In fields of air he writes his name, 
And treads tl e chambers of the sky — 
He reads the stars and grasps the flame 
That quivers round the throne on high. 
In war renowned, in peace sublime, 
Ho moves in greatness and in grace ; 
His power, subduing space and time, 
Links realm to realm, and race to race." 

Science and Art thus commingled, and thus employ- 
ed, become philosophy made visible ! Like the banyan 
of the Orient, Science first sends up its centre shaft, 



26 

whose luxuriant brandies, spreading, turn toward their 
native source ; these strike root anew, and again shoot 
up new stems, bearing other branches, which also 
widen as they grow, all adding new vigor and lending 
additional beauty to the parent stock. 

The method of prosecuting scientific study — i. e., 
the process of reducing knowledge to order, is strictly 
an inductive process, whether prosecuted in the field or 
the laboratory. Induction consists in classifying facts, 
and stating the inference, or result of the generaliza- 
tion, in such a manner that the evidence of the cor- 
rectness of the inference shall itself be manifest. Like 
mathematics, starting from the *' given" — from facts 
— it proceeds to determine the whole truth touching 
their relations : starting, thus, from the known, it sets 
out in search of the unknown, to which, indeed, it 
may attain and demonstrate its laws. This, theory 
and speculation can never accomplish. 

Bacon found the philosophy of the ancients alto- 
gether speculative and hyjDothetical. In the construc- 
tion of their systems of science, Nature had scarcely 
been at all consulted, while Aristotle was appealed to 
as an oracle, and to gainsay his dictum, was, among 
the Greeks and even by the scholastics of succeeding 
centuries, held to be an impiety deserving of divine 
retribution ! And under the auspices of this philoso- 
phy the Greeks did condemn, as guilty of impiety to- 
wards the Gods, those who first attempted to make 
known the cause of thunder ! In the schools of both 
Aristotle and Pytliagoras, logic was held to be the 
touchstone of science, as well as the test of philosophy ; 
and the principle of all logic, as you know, is to exam- 
ine only the form of the statement and the deductions, 



27 

but never to question the premises. As an example of 
this I may allude to the much vaunted Pythagorean 
theory of cosmography, which, though sanctioned by 
the opinion of Plato, must nevertheless excite a smile 
on the visage of even sober-browed philosophy. The 
Earth, he said, was a living, animate creature, of im- 
mense magnitude : this point assumed, it followed most 
logically, as he declared, that it must breathe ! Very 
well. The next step in the logical formula was, that 
in its respiration, its huge breathings affected the 
level of the ocean ! Certainly it would. And there- 
upon followed the ultimate conclusion that thereby were 
produced the fiux and reflux of the tides ! And such 
continued to be the philosophy of the world for more 
than two thousand years. With such utter miscon- 
ception of nature's laws, we can scarcely wonder at 
their concomitant doctrines concerning the origin of the 
the human race, which maintained that man owed his 
primitive paternity to the honorable and venerable an- 
cestry of Grasshoppers ! And from this authority, cer- 
tainly renowned and hoary, it is hoped that the "pro- 
gressive development theory" of Lamarck may derive 
an appropriate sanction ! 

Lord BACOisr is called the author of the Inductive 
Philosophy, and with him certainly it first assumed a 
systematic form ; but its germ had long before been 
planted : the genius of Bacon, however, enabled him 
to gather its harvest of renown. The system of Pla- 
to, though obscure, was, in a measure, inductive. And 
Socrates claimed for the mind " a capacity to go from 
the point where it is, to the point where it yet is not." 
For this he prescribes the process as passing from the 
known to the unknown — from the particular fact to 



28 

the general truth — by the force of an analogy " which 
is first only a resemblance, then becomes a probability, 
and finally resolves itself into certitude." This is, sub- 
stantially. Induction. But the Inductive Philosophy 
belongs to no school, to no sect, to no age ; it is the 
common property of the human mind, of whose laws 
Socrates and Plato, like Bacon, were among the great 
expounders. While Aristotle would test all things by 
the syllogism, Induction reduces every proposition to a 
problem — hence, while the conclusions of the former 
might be fallacious, the resulting inference of the latter 
must be demonstrative. 

The philosophy of the " Stagyrite " having once as- 
sumed the premises, was most anxious concerning the 
accuracy of the syllogistic conclusions ; but the philos- 
ophy of the " Organum " is most anxious as to the ac- 
curacy of the elementary fiicts, and then pursues the 
inference with undeviating fidelity. To what had been 
" said by them of old," and to doctrines coming from 
" authority in high places,'' both the Academicians and 
the Peripatetics were profoundly deferential ; but, In- 
duction pays no respect to the apotheosis of error, and 
contumaciously scouts the servile sentiment, mentioned 
by Cicero as prevalent among the ancient schools, that 
they would " rather he in error with Plato than correct 
with any hody else" 

In the application of the Inductive Philosophy to 
Physical Science, the mind of the student should be 
fully apprised of the ever-recurring danger of predica- 
ting scientific opinion and practical action upon what 
may, indeed, be facts, but which remain before our 
minds as isolated facts — he should be continually 
guarded against the continual temptation to proceed 



29 

upon the faith of facts not classified — not yet general- 
ized. This is leaping to conclusions ; but it is leaping 
in the dark ; because, facts not generalized, not reduced 
to order, can not, in any manner nor by any means, es- 
tablish the existence of a scientific law. The homely 
proverb, that "o?z6 swallow does not make a sum- 
mer," is not more emphatically true than that, a single 
fact does not establish a law. The single swallow may 
herald the approach of, but does not bring, the sum- 
mer : so the single fact may indicate, but does not dem- 
onstrate the law. Inattention to this is what mounts 
the scientific Tyro, guided by a single fact, and of 
course, possessed of but one idea, upon some long-eared 
hobby, whose asinine vagaries and intractable eccen- 
tricities will carry him far astray ; and, even if finally 
rejected, like all lawless cattle, will return only to vex 
the person by whom it was, so unwisely, bestrode. 
Remember, then, that the single fact is where Induction 
begins ; the demonstration of the law in relation to the 
fact, is where Induction ends : and, between this be- 
ginning and the end may lie a whole archipelago of 
facts — each, isolated, by itself; while the relations of 
all must be grouped into system in making our way 
from one to another, on toward the mainland of truth. 
By the grouping together of different facts are inferred 
their mutual relations ; and, these relations of things are 
the laivs we seek. And, certainly, a single isolated fact 
can no more demonstrate relations, than a single nu- 
merical unit can express numerical combinations. 

" The first and great commandment " of the Induc- 
tive Philosophy is, " Thou shall call no man Master ! " 
" and the second is like unto it " — " Prove all things^ 
and hold fast tJiat vphich is good ! ' Accordingly, thus 



30 

saitli the '' Instauration " — "a really useful induction 
for discovery and demonstration in science should not 
be all absorbing of fixcts ; but should sift and separate 
nature by proper rejections and exclusions, and then to 
conclude for the affirmative after collecting a sufficient 
number of negatives." And, having done this, you 
will discover that those very negatives stand by, j)ro- 
testing in behalf of the affirmative. 

In the sententious diction of Lord Coke a '^ protest " 
is defined to be " the exclusion of a cwidusion.'' And, 
accordingly, those negatives are so many solemn pro- 
tests for the exclusion of every other conclusion than 
such as the affirmative facts estabhsh. As an illustra- 
tion, permit me to allude to a familiar example : 

Among the old philosophers, water, as you know, 
was assumed to be a simple substance — an element ; 
and, then, to have spoken of the composition and de- 
composition of water would have been pronounced as 
in contradiction to Aristotle, and, therefore, both foolish 
and profane I But, w^ith a few plain plates of zinc and 
copper the student now decomposes water, and finds its 
constituent elements to be oxygen and hydrogen. It 
may surprise him to learn that in thus forming water, 
Nature, as though sporting with antagonisms and in- 
compatibles, has employed the essential element of the 
atmosphere, and the sole supporter of the combustion. 
Next, he is astonished to find that these elements, of 
which all the rivers and oceans of earth are made, 
when united in their gaseous forms produce a mixture 
dangerously explosive; and he further learns, with 
wonder and almost fear, that, by the application of 
flame at the junction of their mutual currents, these 
constituents of water will ignite, and burn with a heat 



31 

so intense as almost instantly to dissolve and consume 
the firmest metals ; but, finally, he is overwhelmed 
with amazement on discovering that the residuum of 
these gases, thus passing through this intense flame, 
this consuming fire is again — not ashes, nor cinder, — 
but is again water ! And thus this surprising nega- 
tive lends all the force of demonstration to the afiirma- 
tive conclusion touching the composition of water. 

It is, moreover, manifest that the constancy of Na- 
ture — the absolute fixedness of her laws — is the 
necessary foundation of physical science, and the indis- 
pensible condition upon which induction proceeds. — 
For, deny this supposition — admit that Nature does 
not always resemble herself, and we have no longer a 
guaranty that this right shall restore the coming mor- 
row ; the whole future eludes our foresight, and noth- 
ing remains but the bubbling cauldron of chance : Cha- 
os and Cosmos become convertible terms; Science — 
knowledge reduced to order — would be a sheer impos- 
sibility, and philosophy would be but the synonim of 
insanity. 

It has been by many supposed, and by some declared, 
that the extended and critical study of natural science 
tends to unfix the mind in its veneration of a God — 
that the abstruse investigation of nature's law fosters a 
kind of philosophic atheism. And, it is true, that 
when natural science first began to reach the multi- 
tude, many of its soi disant expounders, founding their 
doctrines and oj^inions upon isolated and unclassified 
facts — of which I have spoken, as inconsistent with 
philosophic induction — with what they denominated 
Science, supplanted religion ; and, for the deductions of 
human reason, discarded revelation. They accordingly 



32 

proclaimed the universe to be a self-formed, self-poised, 
indestructible effect, and consequently without a crea- 
tor. Such was the atheism of France. Another change 
has more recently come over the spirit of skepticism : 
and, still invoking science without revelation, it has 
come to be maintained — not that the creation is with- 
out God, nor that the creation is only a manifestation 
of God — but, that the creation is God ! Such is now 
the Pantheism of Germany, whose doctrines are far 
more prevalent, both in Europe and America, than is 
commonly supposed. In the first place, Atheism de- 
prived creation of all paternity, and made the universe 
a7i orphan ! Scholasticism next presented creation 
with a God, but a God of utter abstraction ; so separa- 
ted from the world and humanity that all providential 
notice and supervision are denied to him. This gives 
creation a ]3arent, to be sure, but^ worse even than the 
orphanage of Atheism, makes him a parent discarding 
and scorning his own offspring ! It makes him a king, 
certainly, but renders him a solitary, emotionless mon- 
arch, thrust into exile from his own dominions ; by de- 
nying him all sympathy with creation, it seats him far 
away from creation, on the bleak and deserted throne 
of a blank and silent eternity. Shuddering at this aw- 
ful chasm which scholasticism had placed between God 
and Humanity, and desirous of approximating Creation 
and Providence, the modern movement began in pro- 
nouncing God to be the universe ; and finally ends in 
declaring the Universe to be God ! A nd such is Pan- 
theism. This, consequently, presents a God so incor- 
porated with Creation as to be absorbed and lost in the 
works of his own hands ; thus exhibiting to the philo- 
sophic mind this most egregious paradox of compress- 



ing the Infinite within the limits of the Finite. Stand- 
ing in the presence of the Universe, wonderfully great 
and sublimely glorious though it be ! and saying — 
" Thou art God ! " is to say that the universe has not 
a cause greater than its effects : and thus Pantheism is 
resolved into Atheism. The ultimatum of this much 
vaunted modern pantheistic philosophy goes no further, 
and asserts no more sublime pretensions, than those 
contained in the philosophy (?) of the untutored Sav- 
age, who 

" Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind." 

Its deepest revelations claim no higher sanction than 
the authority of Natural Science — its loftiest aspira- 
tions consist in paying an undevout reverence to scien- 
tific grandeur and artistic beauty — its whole catechism 
and creed are compiled from a source of no more sol- 
emn sanctity than the theology of mathematics ! 

I have already alluded to the demands of both pri- 
vate and public economy, requiring this extended pub- 
lic instruction in physical science because of its para- 
mount utility to the practical artt^ and industrial pur- 
suits. And, from what has just been said, it seems 
manifest that physical science has become and is to be 
the battle ground in the great contest between Christi- 
anity and the Infidel doctrines of this modern Panthe- 
istic dogma. And in that contest it were unwise to 
yield the vantage ground of superior science to the op- 
ponents of revelation : I would not, by any means, suf- 
fer the enemy to hold all the fortifications, to wield all 
the artillery, and retain all the ammunition. I would, 
therefore, have our students and young men, clad in the 
panoply of science, go forth to benefit the race in every 
sphere of usefulness — to look with wide-reaching, 
philosophic eye upon the stupendous marvels of Omni- 



34 

potence ; not to " blindly deify the idol, Chance : " I 
would have them go forth as the professed disciples of 
that vast and erudite volume of Science, " whose body 
Nature is, and God the Soul ! " I would enjoin them 
to go forth, in humble admiration, to contemplate the 
minute yet wondrous cinctures that " wed Creation to 
Divinity ; " assuring them, that while they wonder and 
adore, they will be continually prompted to exclaim 

What are We ! 
" M.orKs, floating in the yleam of All-creating Liyht '" 
Yet borji to live when Nations die ; 
The comrades of uncounted years ! " 

Such, Young Gentlemen, will be the characteristic 
features of the tuition you may here expect to receive : 
Such, Gentlemen of the Faculty, will be the nature of 
the instruction we will be required to give : Such, Gen- 
tlemen Trustees, will be the sentiments we shall aim to 
inculcate, such the doctrines we shall hope to enforce : 
Such, Friends and Fellow Citizens, will be the purposes 
we shall hope to attain, such the advancement we shall 
aim to secure. Permit me, then, to ask the co-operation 
of all of the Public,* Trustees, Faculty and Students, 
for the attainment of *' a consummation so devoutly to 
be wished." 

And in this we must learn the student that the 
mind must worh for what it feeds upon — like the body, 
it must labor for its necessities, as well as for its wealth. 
In systematizing this labor, and to make pleasant this 
toil, the Inductive Philosophy will be our chosen me- 
dium, and chief reliance. Upon its towering, tireless 
wings may human genius mount, and like the Angel of 
the Apocalypse, go flying through the midst of heaven, 
gazing with inquiring wonder upon the wide-spread 
amplitude and unspeakable glories of God Almighty's 



35 

Universe. It is this Philosophy, which, like the ladder 
seen in the vision of the patriarch, is let down from 
above, and which reaches from earth to heaven, afford- 
ing to human thought the means of ascent into those 
altitudes of Science where, almost, "Angels fear to 
tread." Upon this the scientific mind mounts, step by 
step — each round gained is but a step towards the one 
above : it rises from effects to cause — from facts to 
laws ; it finds the cause it sought, to be but the effect 
of some higher cause : It mounts again ; and again it 
finds a greater cause above. And up it rises, and still 
up, to seek the ultimate cause ; and still ascending, still 
he finds the First Great Cause to be " past finding out." 
Here his physical science ends, and the metaphysical 
begins. But the great ascent is not yet complete — the 
" causa causarum " remains still unaccounted for ; nor 
is it possible for the human mind even here to halt. 
Johnson, speaking of Shakspeare, says : 

"He exhausted worlds, and then imagined new ! 
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, 
And panting Time toiled after him in vain !" 

And, as it was with the genius of the Poet, so it may 
be with the science of the Savan ; for his conceptions 
of the Universe overleap the bounded horizon of the 
physical, and with eager induction he grapples with the 
moral and the metaphysical. This Philosophy it is 
that whispers to his ear the mystic password by which 
he transcends the " bounded reign " of physical exist- 
ence, and, leading him up, with solemn reverence, be- 
neath the pillarless dome of Eternity, inspires his soul 
with a devout contemplation of that Divine Intelligence 
which 

" Lives through all liie— extends through all extent j 
Spreads unoiyided — operates unspent," 



36 

Finally, we have the wonderful faculties of the human 
intellect as the materials and instrumentalities upon 
which the process of the inductive philosophy is to 
operate ; — intellectual faculties which, in their creation, 
are projected on a scale commensurate with the range 
of the Universe, fitted for the fellowship of Angels, and 
for the friendship of God ! Faculties, which, with a 
glance that leaves the winged lightning behind, can 
dart backward to the infancy of Time, and sound the 
dateless depths that spread in solemn silence beyond ; — 
or forward, through Time's course and consummation ; 
and on, and still on, among the awfiil cycles of Eter- 
nal Futurity; — Faculties, which, in their excursions 
through the wide dominions of authoritative history, as 
well as in their imaginative rambles through "the 
long-drawn aisles of the past," can pause where they 
list — can hold glad converse with adoring Shepherds 
and Angel watchers around the rustic bed of the Babe 
of Bethlehem — can confer with Prophet, Priest and 
Patriarch ; or, mingle, in gladness, with the ^' Sons of 
God" while shouting for joy around the new-laid pil- 
lars of an unfinished world ! 

And yet, stimulated and sustained by faculties such 
as these, and yearning in desire, 

" To follow knowledge, like a sinkino; star, 
Beyond the utmost verge of human thought;" 

you will not, nay. Young Gentlemen, man cannot, find 
a world nor an atom that is not stampt with the royal 
signet of Jehovah ! For, though our minds may climb 
to the very battlements of science, and though our im- 
aginations, soaring thence, should roam beyond, still, 
we could only say, 

" Through all the vast, and the minute we see 
The unambiguous footsteps of a God, 
Who lends its lustre to an insect's wing, 
And wheels his throne on rolling worlds !" 



Ma^ 9,8, ]g:,.\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 744 096 4 



OFFICERS 



E. M. GREGORY, J. W. CALDWELL, S. F. GARY, 



PRESIDENT. 



SECKETAKY. 



TREASUREK. 



FREEMAN G. GARY, THOMAS B. WITHERBY, 

SUPERINTENDENTS OF OOLI.EGE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



F A C U I^ T Y . 



ISAAC JACKSON ALLEN, A. M., President, 

rnOFEPSOR OF RITETORTC, OF MENTAL AND MORAL SOIENrE, AND OF THE INSTITUTES 

OF CIVIL LAW. 

ROBERT HAMILTON BISHOP, D. D., 

PFwOFESSOR OF HISTOKT AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

FREEMAN GRANT GARY, A. M., 

PROFESSOR OF SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE, AND HORTICULTURE. 

LORENZO GARY, A. M., 

PU0FES6OK OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE. 

PHILIP JACOB KLUND, 

PltOFKSSOR OF MODERN LANCiUAGES AND LITERATUJtE. 

REUBEN SMITH BOSWORTH, 

PROFESSOR OF NATURAL SCIENCK, AND ITS APPLICATION TO "AGRICULTURE AND THE 

AltTS. 

JOHN STEWART HENDERSON, 

PllOFESSOU OF MATHEMATICS, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, AND ASTRONOMY. 

GEORGE STEPHEN ORMSBY, A. B., 

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS, AND PRINCIPAL OF THE PREPARATORY 
DEPARTMENT. 

JOHN M. WALDEN, A. B., 

TUTOR. 



